Incorrect claims about Muslims in England recirculating on Facebook

A viral post that’s been circulating in some form for at least seven years makes several claims about Muslims in the UK, many of which are either untrue or unevidenced.

It’s very similar to a post we’ve seen and checked multiple times since 2017, including as recently as May this year.

False or misleading claims about specific religious groups have the potential to harm individuals and groups. Online claims can spread fast and far and are difficult to contain and correct. Internet companies must take responsibility to ensure that they have clear and transparent policies on the treatment of misinformation on their platforms, and then apply them consistently.

Muslim mayors

The post first claims that the mayors of London, Birmingham, Leeds, Blackburn, Sheffield, Oxford, Luton, Oldham and Rochdale are all Muslim.

It’s true that all of these places have had mayors who are Muslim at some point, but not all of them currently do.

The religion of any given mayor generally isn’t held as a matter of public record, but knowledge of some, such as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, are known. Likewise, the Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen has publicly spoken about being Muslim, while the current Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Chaman Lal, is from a Sikh family. 

Muslims claiming state support

The post also makes a number of claims about Muslim men and women and their use of state support.

It suggests 78% of Muslim women and 63% of Muslim men “don’t work and are on free benefits/housing”.

It’s not clear what time period these figures refer to. But according to 2021 census data, 37% of Muslim women and 59.9% of Muslim men were employed, figures which are clearly inconsistent with those given in the Facebook post. 

We’ve not been able to find official data breaking down those claiming Universal Credit and other benefits by their religion. The government says that this data is unavailable. Questions on religion are included in the equality survey made available to claimants, but it is not compulsory.

Of those who responded to the 2021 census and said all those in their household identified as Muslim, 27.8% in England lived in social housing, but this doesn’t mean the accommodation is free.

The post then makes a claim suggesting the Muslim families with 6-8 children are “planning to go on free benefits/housing”. 

It’s hard to know exactly what this means, but there doesn’t appear to be good data to support the idea that Muslim families have an average of 6-8 children. 

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) told us in May 2024 that working out the average number of children per household is not straightforward. It said, to the best of their workings, that in Muslim-only single family households with dependent children, there were an average of 2.6 children at the time of the 2021 census, though this figure excludes multi-generational households, and assumes that households of eight people or more include exactly eight people. 

Mosques

One of the claims the post makes is that there are “over 3,000 Muslim Mosques”.

The ONS does not collect data on the number of places of worship, including mosques, but the government estimated in 2018 there were “1,500 mosques and prayer halls in England”, and in 2020 the Muslim Council of Britain said, in written evidence to a Lords select committee, there were “about 1,200 mosques” in Britain. 

The organisation Muslims in Britain maintains a database of mosques in the UK. As of 31 July 2024, there are 2,149 premises across the UK that are used for Islamic worship, 1,993 of which are in England.

These figures include spaces such as hired halls, chaplaincies or dedicated prayer rooms, as well as temporary premises, those still under construction and those that are planned or proposed.

Sharia courts and councils

The post claims there are more than 130 sharia courts and more than 50 sharia councils.

There is no official count of how many of these exist in the UK, although a 2018 Home Office review found that there were between 30 and 85 sharia councils in England and Wales.

Sharia councils (sometimes referred to as sharia courts) are not formal courts of law, and have “no legal status and no legal binding authority under civil law”, according to the Home Office.

“No-go” areas

Another claim is that there are “Muslims-Only No-Go Areas Across the UK”.

As we’ve explained before, there are no areas in the UK where UK law doesn’t apply or where police can’t do their work (except perhaps diplomatic premises), and no evidence of geographical areas that exclude individuals on the basis of religion.

Halal meat in schools

One claim in the post suggests that “all UK schools are only serving Halal meat”.

That’s not correct. Government rules on school food in England don’t specify that food which meets religious dietary requirements must be served. Individual schools may choose to provide halal meat if they wish, but there’s no obligation for all schools to do so.

The government said previously it does not hold information on the number of schools that only provide halal meals, and we’ve previously found examples of schools in Scotland and England with pork—which is not halal—on their menus.